Capcom Pro Tour 2016: July Roundup

Welcome once again to a new edition of the CPT Tour Round Up for the month of July. The spots for the Finals are stacking up, players are getting hungry to get a piece of the big price. Players once thought of being invincible, unbreakable, has shown cracks in their defense. Europe finally got some representation in the Finals and new content has rolled up into SFV, a welcomed change to the still short lifespan of the game. The big one, Evolution 2016 is upon us, and now even ESPN has notice this, an amazing milestone for the exposure of the FGC. Here’s the roundup for the month of July.

CPT 2016, SFV News and Notes

ESL will host a non-CPT tournament in their ESL One event taking place on the Barclay Center in Brooklyn, New York, on October 1st and 2nd with $75,000 in prizes up for grabs.

At CEO 2016 was revealed that Balrog will be added to the roster in the latest update alongside Ibuki.

Tournament Organizer for EVO 2016, Joey “Mr. Wizard” Cuellar, announced that Ibuki and Balrog are legal characters to use in SFV. This takes precedent as the Tournament Organizer has enforced in past years a 30 day availability window for characters to be tournament legal.

EVO 2016 final registration numbers for SFV were revealed, 5,107 total players, a all time new record for any fighting video game.

Capcom announced that EVO 2016 SFV finals will be broadcast on ESPN2 live on July 17th

Naoki “Nemo” Nemoto got a sponsorship with Dell Alienware Japan

Tournament Results

The ranking events became a warm up for things to come for the next two Premier events on the calendar. In Taiwan, TWFighter Major 2016 took place, the tournament organizer for this event, Team AVerMedia Bruce “Gamerbee” Hsiang couldn’t participate in the event since the rules states that TOs can’t compete at their own events. The usual suspects in the Asian region where present here, but former Team MadCatz and free agent Kenryo “Mago” Hayashi got the win and locks a spot in the Asia Final. In the Motherland of Russia, Moscow Fighting Arena took place. Local talent were present, but some of the usuals from the UK and the rest of Europe came to rise up in the leaderboards, but in the end Kun “Xian” Ho, after coming from a fourth place finish at BAM 8 in Australia took top honors and clinched a spot on the Europe Finals.

The fourth stop in the Premiere event calendar came to the gorgeous land of Sweden, where one of the biggest video game community conventions in Europe, Dreamhack, took host to the CPT. Top tier talent from Europe and Asia mostly came for a chance in the CPT Finals, little impact from the american scene were present. But Norwegian player Arman “Phenom” Hanjani from Team BX3 came on top from the Winners side, locking a spot for the CPT Finals. Having to go through the likes of Mago, Daigo and Fuudo for his victory, this one makes it of the most impressive runs as of now in a Premier Event.

Orlando, Florida was host to the fifth Premier Event for the calendar year, Community Effort Orlando or CEO. This one is a very special event for the US scene, and this year was no exception. From the four sided ring as a main stage, to the wrestling style entrances for top eight, this one was one to remember. Top American and European players couldn’t reach top eighth, only but one american could and came short in the end in fifth place, Team Liquid’s Du “NuckleDu” Dang. It was all in the hands of former Team Mad Catz Hajime “Tokido” Taniguchi to rise up to the occasion and grab that coveted spot for the CPT Finals. The road was not easy, coming from losers side he had to beat both Yusuke Momochi and Seonwoo “Infiltration” Lee for that to make it possible.

The Grand Finals were set, Tokido Vs. Infiltration part three was bound to happen. Tokido hasn’t beaten Infiltration in the last four confrontations overall in the CPT calendar, until now. In a impressive display of his Ryu, Tokido came on top with a forced reset victory 3 -1 and an outstanding 3 – 0 in the final set, finally slaying his “demon” that has been keeping him at bay from the CPT Finals. Here’s the results for June:

Leaderboards

Not all regions saw action this month, so no major shifts have been made. In the Global Leaderboards side of things, Justin Wong maintains the top slot without winning any points in his last outing at CEO. Tokido was the biggest gainer this time around, reaching second place and closing the gap Justin Wong has created with his dominance in past months in the North American tour. Because Team BX3 Phenom has already qualified for the CPT Finals, but also is the leader in points on that leaderboard, q new template is being applied for CPT Finalist that also place high on Ranking Leaderboards. Rules states that if a Player already qualifies for the CPT Finals is one of the top 2 players in points in a region, that place is given to the next higher points placing. Notice that as of now second and third place in that region are CPT Finals bound, for now. There’s plenty of Ranking events in the calendar, this may change by the end of the event calendar. Here’s the standings as of June 26th:

Global Leaderboard

Regional Leaderboards

North America

Latin America

Europe

Asia

Upcoming Events

The big one is upon us, EVO 2016, the largest FGC event in the World will take place in Las Vegas, Nevada. This is the biggest points and prize money giver on the CPT outside of the Finals, so you can expect EVERYBODY from all parts of the world to gather not just for the cash and points, but bragging rights. China also will host a Premier event the weekend before EVO lands upon us, G-League 2016. In the Ranking event side of things, New York will host one of the most beloved tournaments on the east coast, Defend The North 2016. Sonic Boom Summer Edition, taking place in Madrid, Spain will host the final event of the month. Here’s the event calendar for the month of July:

Evolution

EVO 2016 – Las Vegas, Nevada, USA – July 15th to 17th

Premiere Events

G-League 2016 – Shanghai, China – July 7th to 10th

Ranking Events

Defend the North 2016 – New York, New York – July 29th to 31st

Sonic Boom 2016 Summer Edition – Madrid, Spain – July 30th to 31st

So this is your monthly round up for the month of July. Evolution 2016 is upon us, and with it the biggest prize money pot outside of the CPT Finals. This one will be very special, the finals for every game including SFV will take place on the Mandalay Bay Arena. Being a venue recognized for his big boxing events of the past, makes it the more important for EVO to represent the FGC in the highest regards. Topple that with ESPN2 broadcasting the top eight on National TV, the exposure will be immense for the scene.

As a final word, let me take this time to give my regards to Capcom for taking the steps necessary to fix what has been a bad streak of bad press caused by the delay of post-launch content in the past months. We as fans and consumers we have to understand that content post launch cost money, and also can confront problems along the way. I’ll be one to accept that I was also upset with their lack of communication with their fanbase, and took my frustrations on social media as a result. But I did it not just as a consumer, but as a fan that desired for them to succeed. You can bet that whatever they got in stored for the rest of 2016 and beyond must be on the works as we speak, and for that we can’t rush them, let them take their time to release content in the best possible way.

That said, Capcom needs to keep communication with their fans, even if no new content is presented to play with, just keep tabs on what’s happening behind the scenes. I know this methods may not be favorable to the higher ups in some companies, but the culture of videogames and social media has evolved, times has changed. You keep informed your customers, you keep people interested in your product, that produce sales in the long run, at least that my view of things.